Today, Pebble Limited Partnership filed suit against the EPA for public process to protect Bristol Bay from controversial mine

The Bristol Bay watershed is rich with salmon, wildlife and salmon-based Alaska Native cultures and is home to the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world.

Photo provided by Ben Knight / Trout Unlimited

EPA has both the science and the law behind it … Pebble could learn a lot from EPA by disclosing its plans to the public and conducting a transparent process.

Tom Waldo

Attorney, Earthjustice

May 22, 2014

Juneau, AK —

The Pebble Limited Partnership announced today that it has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for taking the first step in a public process that may lead to advance protections for Bristol Bay. The EPA’s advance protections would prevent the waste from a massive proposed copper and gold mine from damaging the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery and the local communities that depend on the Bay’s abundant fish.

Earthjustice denounces the lawsuit. The following statement is from Tom Waldo, Earthjustice attorney based in Juneau, Alaska:

“EPA has both the science and the law behind it. The EPA’s comprehensive analysis, which it prepared with extensive public input and peer review, showed that the Pebble Mine would be unacceptable for the wild salmon of Bristol Bay and the many people who depend on that $1 billion-dollar fishery, the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world. Pebble could learn a lot from EPA by disclosing its plans to the public and conducting a transparent process.”

Contacts

About Earthjustice

Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people’s health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer.